Saturday, September 19, 2009

Music I love (Camera Obscura-If Looks Could Kill)

Damien and I were just talking about the whole idea of technology making it so no one has to remember anything anymore. We were at a high school football game last night and I overheard 2 of my students talking about their GPS. I thought "Wow, these guys won't even have to bother to learn routes and highways and all that. They can just plug it into a mini computer and it will do it all for them." I own a GPS and I use it. I did, however, spend 14 years of my life driving without one. I learned routes and highways and I continue to learn them. I also grew up having to remember peoples' phone numbers. Not necessary anymore. Your phone can do that for you. Now, this is not my attempt to state that I am anti-technology (as I sit here on my couch, typing on my macbook, about to post something to go onto the world-wide-web). This is not my point at all. I am simply wondering what the long-term effect will be on people. Damien pointed out that it has been happening right along. He is right (as always) but I can't help but wonder if it is being facilitated by all of the instantness available to people during their formative years. Or maybe the fact that their brains don't have to store all of the mundane things will have the opposite effect and they'll now have extra space to learn and store things I can't even begin to imagine....

So what is the point of this post. There is one. I fall victim to this when it comes to music. I don't have to bother to learn the song names anymore (another thing Damien pointed out to me). I just put my iPod on shuffle or throw a CD into my 6 disc changer in the car and hit play. I will spend a lot of time with one album (Silversun Pickups has been in slot 1 in my car since we bought it in May of 08) but never learn the names of a single song. This makes conversation with others difficult.

Me: Hey, do you listen to _______________? They are amazing. I love them.

Other: What do they sing?

Me: Um, well, I think one song is called, well, hm. It goes like this...(I start doing my rendition of the song).

Other: No, don't think I know it. You sound like a huge fan, though.

I feel that way about this band, Camera Obscura. Dame came home one day with their CD, Let's Get Out Of This Country, and we both fell in love with them. I knew when I started doing the Music I love part of the blog, that I would include a song from them. But even as I sat down to do this post, I had to google them to find out the names of the songs. Oh well, at least I am leaving room in my brain for other things...

2 comments:

I bought a Camera Obscura cd years ago on the suggestion of the bartender at Ralph's. It was pretty good. I reminded me of Belle and Sebastian. Have you heard The Pains of Being Pure at Heart? If not, you should check it out. I think you'd really like it.